for 2-channel fixed media
made with my new waterphone at MacDowell, December 2021

was is will be (2021)

James F. Lowrie, cello
Elizabeth Cottrell, clarinet
Joy Risher, flute

Arranged by Christopher L. Saraga for the original soundtrack to the stage play "Reformation" by H. Paul Moon (1993)

Khristofor Saraga wrote this music in his early 20s. It sounds weird at first, even weirder when you know the original tune, but in his formal counterpoint there's a haunting prescience and melancholy that divines some other world of harmony. The last twenty seconds in particular take a modal turn that feels weirdly conclusive even if it's wrong. Chris knew how to play with boundaries, though he was usually going for the joke; I could lose track of time, listening to him improvise when issued the challenge to riff on the Dies irae or some John Williams "Naughty," as we'd call "Johnny Boy's" endlessly recycling leitmotifs. Chris learned these skills in community with pipe organ pedagogues like Herbert Geisler and Rudy Inselmann, and our mutual friend James Lowrie who's now greeting Chris in Heaven, but all these men were divining progenitors like Bach with the weekly work ethic of ornamenting church music.

Khristofor Saraga did not write this music with a scowl or some evident sadness. I remember the night well; I'm pretty sure it was even a foggy night of that inland coastal Irvine clime. I had been nagging Chris to finish writing his portions of the incidental music score to my overambitious frosh turn as a playwright, not least on behalf of musicians Joy Risher, Elizabeth Cottrell and James Lowrie so that they could bloody rehearse in time for opening night. Chris might have been avoiding me that day in truancy, but as I walked up to his dormitory window, there he was, hunched over a tiny kitchen table with staff paper and pencil. And: no piano at all to plunk it out. These were notes in his head. Next, he had to endure my wailing praise about genius talent, but he only giggled back about merely writing a ditty, and scooted the paper across the tabletop.

Khristofor Saraga left too soon, just like James. I've hardly met anybody since then with whom we could ramble on about music for hours without any of us checking our watches. Something I love about music, though, is that it never dies. It is patient and kind, and it doesn't concern weight problems and family problems and having money and being cool. Chris: I'll see you again after a few more measures of music. For now, thanks for your ditty.

Reformation (Original Soundtrack)

Ein Feste Burg (arr. Christopher L. Saraga)

Lyrics,vocals by Black Saturn                                                                         Sounds & production by  Pain Burn & Igor Amokian                                    released march 28,2023                                                                                  painburn.bandcamp.com                                                                                     youtube.com/amokian                                                                                       igoramokian.bandcamp.com                                                                           blacksaturn.bandcamp.com                                                                            youtube.com/@blacksaturntv3242

Soul Train Line

Live on Governor's Island, curated by Melody Loveless for Harvestworks.

May 12, 2023

Xmas Jollies 2023

1. Season’s Greetings from Wolfman Jack
2. Mighty Sparrow, “Xmas Moppers,” 2000
3. Big Cynthia, “I Got Your Cookies and Milk,” 2014
4. Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, “Christmas Time,” 1992
5. Amanda Shires w/ The McCrary Sisters, “Gone For Christmas,” 2021
6. Roy Forbes (a/k/a Bim), “Christmas Time (I’m Gonna Be Home),” 1985
7. Aaron Neville, “Louisiana Christmas Day,” 1993
8. Johnnie Allan, “C’est Christmas Dans La Louisiane,” 1987
9. Rockin’ Sidney, “I’m Not Gonna Spend Christmas Alone,” 1976
10. Michelle Omba, “Non-Religious Christmas Song,” 2020
11. Goddammit Jeremiah, “Where’s My Presents?” 2022
12. The Carveliners, “Ridin’ with Santa,” 2023
13. Bob Seger and The Last Heard, “Sock It to Me Santa,” 1966
14. Season’s Greetings from Barry Adler, 2023
15. Gangstagrass featuring Kosha Dillz, “Happy Chinooka,” 2022
16. Los Tramposos, “El Burrito De Belen,” 2021
17. Hush Kids, “It’s Christmas,” 2022
18. Malcolm Holcombe w/ Iris DeMent, “Merry Christmas,” 2018
19. Tommy Hester, “Daddy’s Drinking Up Our Christmas,” c. 1968 (Introduced by Red Simpson)
20. Chris Isaak, “Everybody Knows It’s Christmas,” 2022
21. The Lollipops, “Mister Santa,” 1959
22. Harbor Lights, “Jing-A-Ling,” 2021
23. Gladys Bentley w/ Wardell Gray and the Dexter Gordon Quartet, “Jingle, 	Jangle, Jump,” 1952
24. Marimba Novelty Orchestra/Eddie Cantor, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town,” 1934
25. Mike Luare, “El Año Viejo,” 1967
26. Season’s Greetings from Julia Child, 1965
27. Thelonious Monk Quartet, “Abide With Me,” 1957
28. Chris Tomlin featuring Blessing Offor, “Hallelujah,” 2021

Produced by Bill Adler
Sound Engineering by Jacob Burckhardt
Cover Art by Charles Schulz for the cover of Newsweek, December 27, 1971
Cover design by Ruthie Adler

Thanks: Sam Adler and Katu Medina, Harry Allen, Janette Beckman, Catherine Boyle, Haley Brawner, Brian Brannon and Jennifer Lehrer Brannon, Jacob Burckhardt, Andy Cirzan, Candice Crossley, Nina DeMartini Day, Dan Deluca, Eileen Deming, Michael Deming, Andy Derousseau, David Fenton, Roy “Bim” Forbes, Jus Foster, David Gonzalez, Barbara Holliday, Michael Holman, Carol Karbal, Mitchell Kezin, Andrew King, Amy Linden, Miroslav Lovric, Liz Mandell, Rob Martinez, Betsy Meyer, Phil Michelson, Walter Morris, Jaye Muller, Kate Murphy, Jude Nicastro, Don Palmer, Jeff Selzer and Meredith Long, Bob Seidman, John Stainze, Christine Stelly (of Rayne, Louisiana’s No Name Vinyl), Henry Traurig, Noah Uman, Guy Walker, Dale Wiese.

Special thanks, as always, to Sara Moulton.

Xmas Jollies 2023

A demo collection from Arcuate Productions

Behind the Mask

Maternity Asylum

Calefax Reed Quintet live in the New York Frick Collection (2019)

Moondog - New Amsterdam

SIRENS: A CONCERTO FOR THEREMIN AND ORCHESTRA (2018)
I. "Clara's Violin"
II. "Ulysses"
III. "Fugal Horn"

Albany Symphony - NOT FOR DUPLICATION OR REBROADCAST

Carolina Eyck, theremin
David Alan Miller, conductor

Recording of New York premiere: Nov. 9, 2019

COMPOSER'S NOTE:
The theremin has many paradoxical qualities. It is an electronic instrument, yet can sound profoundly musical, even human. While it is the forerunner for so many subsequent technological inventions ranging from high security alarm systems to the synthesizer, it also remains the electronic instrument most sensitive to human presence, despite the fact that it is played without being touched. Playing the theremin presents its highly unique challenges and marvels, among them dealing with its imaginary, fluctuating aerial fingerboard (for which having absolute pitch is preferable). Also, dynamics and articulations are achieved inversely, as the default state of the instrument – when at rest – is sound, the hand carving away at its negative space much like a sculptor chisels at stone, through interference within the electromagnetic field. To perform the theremin as the inventor intended was to imprint the human musical capacity and technique onto the non-human: it was to lend soul to a machine.

This concerto explores, in the course of its three movements, different connotations of the term "siren." Movement I ("Clara's Violin") presents a musical depiction of the legendary theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore's story, the narrative created through an interaction of leitmotifs derived from the names of the related characters and the instruments they played. Movement II ("Ulysses") enacts Kafka’s parable “The Silence of the Sirens,” based on Homer’s tale from the Odyssey, in which an alternate theory is presented regarding the nature of musical torment inflicted by the deadly Sirens upon the sailors’ ears: Kafka maintains that even more lethal than their seductive song, in fact, were their punishing interruptions of silence. For the composer, the irresistible challenge was to create an atmosphere so unsettlingly radiant as to tantalize the listener, the Sirens’ melody (and corresponding leitmotif) interrupted at odd moments with increasingly deafening silences. A loop canon in two voices concludes the movement (as the Sirens were a pair!). The trance is interrupted by Movement III (“Fugal Horn”) a romping, scherzando fugue that degenerates into the final type of “siren” presented in this concerto: an alarm, evoked by the wide glissando effect that is one of the instrument’s trademarks (not unlike the orchestral “siren” utilized frequently by composers of the early-mid-20th century, notably Varese). Following a climactic shriek, and a merging of theremin and orchestra into one “meta-theremin,” leitmotifs based upon the composer’s own signature conclude the work.

WMHT LIVE Broadcast - December 1, 2019

715 Creeks

H. Paul Moon is a filmmaker based in New York City and Washington, D.C. whose works concentrate on the performing arts. Films include “Sitka: A Piano Documentary” about the craftsmanship of Steinway pianos, “Quartet for the End of Time” about Olivier Messiaen’s transcendent WWII composition, and an acclaimed documentary feature about the life and music of American composer Samuel Barber that premiered on PBS.  Moon has created music videos and concert films for numerous composers ranging from Moondog to Steve Reich, and four opera films set in a community garden.  His film “The Passion of Scrooge” was awarded “Critic's Choice” by Opera News as a “thoroughly enjoyable film version, insightfully conceived and directed” with “first-rate and remarkably illustrative storytelling.”  He also was cinematographer for director Josephine Decker's “First Day Out” in the anthology film “collective:unconscious.”  Moon’s films have been screened to live audiences at over two hundred film festivals around the world, with several awards and museum exhibitions.  Highlights include works featured in exhibitions at the Nevada Museum of Art and the City Museum of New York, PBS television broadcasts, and the Venice Biennale.  As a NYSCA grant recipient, he is currently producing the BOWERY MUSIC + POETRY + FILM series at Bowery Poetry Club.

Maternity Asylum

hpmoon